Two articles appeared recently in the 'Jahrbuch der Karl May Gesellschaft.'[1][2]
The authors of both publications present Karl May from a negative viewpoint.
They also question the concept of Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.).

Author of the 'Karl May and Justice' is of an opinion
"that May now more knowingly and willingly acted, for which speaks the
careful planning and the cool appearance"[3]
during the period of 1862-1870, when he was apprehended by the authorities.
The article also assumes "He [i.e. Karl May] acknowledged his
fraudulent role, therefore was always aware of it."[4]Another opinion is offered: "As a multiple personality this could have
never and never occurred to him."[5]And once more some researchers speculate: "In a ‘semiconscious state’
May would not have been able to carry out his criminal offences."[6]

In a previous publication[7]
I have described the state of mind Karl May found himself during the years 1862
till 1874. It is called the Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.). This
is a complex disorder that has only recently been fully recognized. Most
Psychiatric and Psychological Associations recognize the diagnosis, as well as
the Index Medicus, the world largest and most universally accepted
database of clinical articles published by journals and accepted as
scientifically valid. The complexity of this disorder is still causing
disbelieve, confusion and on occasions questioning by some psychologist or even
psychiatrists.

However an outright rejection of D.I.D. as the authors of (1)
and (2) do is not warranted. This is of importance because either Karl May was a
criminal in his youth, or there is a different explanation for his behaviour
during 1862-1874, which was so out of character with the rest of his life.

There appears to be confusion in the minds of the critics with
regard to Karl May and D.I.D.

Firstly they labour under the impression which the popular
press, television programs, movies and various dubious personalities managed to
present to the public.

Secondly they confuse the Dissociative Disorders group
with Multiple Personality Disorder (M.P.D.), not noticing the
difference in classification in the 'Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV'[8]and the 'ICD-10-CM'.[9]

Thirdly there is in their minds an idea that a patient with
D.I.D. (or as they refer to this as M.P.D.) is acting in a hazy somnambulist
state, like a zombie, not remembering anything, out of touch with reality.[10]

Fourthly – there is another statement in (1) which is
clearly not true: "that in the modern forensic psychiatry the diagnosis of
multiple personalities … will be considered … as an iatrogenic artefact."[11]'Iatrogenic' in medical terms
means an illness or symptoms induced in a patient as the result of a physician’s
words or action. Patients come to medical doctors with clear cut symptoms of
D.I.D. to seek treatment, and not vice versa.

Fifthly – over the years Karl May had been named at
different times a personality with schizoid, histrionic, narcissistic disorder,
and lately even declared a life long case of bipolar disorder. Somehow it became
a tradition to stereotype May as a criminal, vagrant, “Hochstapler” [confidence
trickster], mentally insane and generally of no good character.

(A). An opinion is expressed in (1) speculating that if Karl
May acted before 1870 in a "hazy", "semiconscious" state of mind ["Dämmerzustand"],
he would not have been capable of deeds he was accused of. From this the author
of (1) deduced that May could not have suffered from D.I.D. Such supposition of
course has not been confirmed by the current clinical knowledge of D.I.D. As
already mentioned – see reference (10) – the 'dream like' condition applies only
to one of the Dissociative Disorders, the Depersonalisation disorder, and
not to the whole group. When the criterion B of D.I.D. is applied it does
not mean the patient has to act in an irrational way because of dysfunction of
mental ability. It is well known from clinical practice that D.I.D. patients
do not act in some "hazy dozy state of mind", but act as fully functional,
rational and logical alter personalities.

It is important to know that reality testing remains intact
in patients affected by dissociative disorders.

It is of great interest to note in this connection that Karl May
mentioned this long before the fact has been confirmed by clinical tests: "I
was sick in my soul, but not in my mind. I had the capability to reach logical
conclusions, to solve every mathematical problem."[12]

None of the required conditions of D.I.D. implicate that
memories or behaviour of the alters have to be repressed, irrational, hazy or
semiconscious [except D].

Criteria for DID from
Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV
Published by the American Psychiatric Association,
Washington, DC, 1999.

An imaginary "dozy state" or "semiconscious state" [Dämmerzustand], as some
researchers presume Karl May had to be in, is not correct.

(B). The other opinion in (1) is that Karl May did not
suffer from D.I.D., because he fully confessed, the hypothesis being that Karl
May must have been aware of what he had done.

In fact because[13]"He [i.e. Karl May] acknowledged his fraudulent role," does not
mean "therefore [he] was always aware of it."

Repressed or recovered memories are not an essential part of the
diagnosis of D.I.D. Many patients have very good recollection of what
happened to them in their childhood, as well as of court transcripts, external
corroboration, and other witnesses. Karl May may have been told, or may have
read what he was accused of. Because May 'acknowledged' his behaviour
does not mean he was 'always aware of it.' According to the latest
medical view[14]
in dissociative identity disorder some of a person’s personalities are aware
of important personal information, whereas other personalities are unaware. Some
personalities appear to know and interact with one another in an elaborate inner
world. For example, person A may be aware of personality B and know what B does,
as if observing B’s behaviour; personality B may or may not be aware of
personality A. Other personalities may or may not be aware of personality B, and
personality B may or may not be aware of them.

The switching of personalities and the lack of awareness of
one’s behaviour in the other personalities often makes life chaotic for people
with dissociative identity disorder. Because the personalities often interact
with each other, people with dissociative personality disorder report hearing
inner conversations and the voices of other personalities commenting on their
behaviour or addressing them. They experience distortion of time, with time
lapses and amnesia. They have feelings of detachment from one’s self (depersonalisation)
and feelings that one’s surroundings are unreal (derealization). People with
D.I.D. may not be able to recall things they have done or account for changes in
their behaviour.

There is as well another explanation.[15] Had May
mentioned the hallucinations and his state of mind to the court, he could have
been confined to a mental asylum.

From all the circumstances, observations by other people of Karl
May, and from what is known today of signs and symptoms of D.I.D., it seems
apparent that May suffered during the years 1862 and 1874 from a group of
Dissociative Disorders. May described the D.I.D. not only in his
biography, but already in 1888.[16]
May also described Dissociative Amnesia, but most importantly the
Dissociative Fugue, which had not been referred to in the textbook on
Psychiatry.[17]
May might have consulted this textbook in 1910 in order to clarify and
understand what happened to him in the past.

Because one of the critiques by the good people who took the
trouble to read my paper[18]
was that mainly Karl May’s own writings have been used in the study (even if
this is an accepted standard research technique), let us mention some other
relevant facts, important for the diagnosis of D.I.D.

Items of unknown clothing found in personal possession.
D.I.D. is a complex condition which has many variations along the scale between
mild and severe cases. One symptom however has been consistently reported from
all over the world, i.e. possession of, to the patient unknown, pieces of
clothing in his/her wardrobe. This fact has even become a joke: "The wardrobe
always provides a multiple choice of new clothing."

Dr. Kathrin Dornbusch from the Department of Clinical Psychology
at the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena conducted a research on D.I.D,[19]
where one of the questions was: "Have you ever found in your wardrobe
clothing and you could not remember buying this?"

May’s description of acquiring fur-coats he had no need for, and
the corresponding Police reports, fall into this category.

Observations of May’s abnormal behaviour by other people.
When arrested on 26th March, 1865, Karl May was observed as being
"quite without movements and seemingly lifeless, and also, after the Police
doctor was called in, [May] did not talk.”"The fact that a doctor had
been asked to come and see May suggests an abnormal conduct.

A warrant issued by the authorities on 31st July, 1869,
specified an interesting detail on May: "… he speaks slowly, in selected
phrases. Distorting his mouth when talking."

Lawyer’s Haase observation. The duty lawyer who was supposed
to defend May, made this observation of the accused in May 1870: "The whole
personality of the defendant made an impression at the main hearing of an odd
person, who to a certain extent seemed to sit on the accused bench full of high
spirits."[20]

Today a forensic psychiatrist would be asked for an opinion, as
the reaction was quite inappropriate in the given circumstances. Haase used the
word "komisch", meaning funny, comical, strange, or odd. It could also
mean queer, peculiar, or even crazy. All these words refer to behaviour,
appearance of people considered out of the ordinary, strange or unusual. Why was
May behaving in such way is open to speculation. The fact is that he was not
acting in a normal way as judged by others.

Dissociative Amnesia and Dissociative Fugue. May has been
searching for explanation of his amnesia and hallucinations in a
textbook on psychiatric diseases.[21]
What is important is that May described a symptom which is not in the
Griesinger’s textbook – the Dissociative Fugue! The sudden, unexpected
travel away from home or one’s customary place of work, with inability to recall
one’s past, confusion about personal identity or assumption of a new identity,
partial or complete.

Not only had May described the Dissociative Fugue in his
autobiography, but he also wrote a story (first published 1888–1889) 'The
Scout', in which William Ohlert represents his alter ego. This story is a
description of D.I.D. symptoms, well before the time anyone ever heard of it.

The power of creativity in the healing process of D.I.D.
Outlet to emotions through art, writing, music, dance, poetry, has been
documented as very important in the recover. Today we have many such works
created by D.I.D. sufferers.

In this context we find there is a surprising similarity if we
compare the Karl May’s poem "Night Terrors", which could have been
written as early as 1863, with poems composed by D.I.D. patients recently.

NIGHT TERRORS.
By Karl May.

Do you know the Night, descending on Earth,
With hollow wind and heavy deluge;
Thick Night, through which star shine is given
no berth,
No eyes see through the weather’s dense wall?
Even if this Night is gloom, in morning there is
refuge;
O lie down in rest and sleep without fear!

Do you know the Night, descending on Life,
When Death tracks you down in your last camp;
The call of eternity sounding close by,
And fear stops still your heart’s pulsing call?
Even if this Night is gloom, in morning there is
a refuge;
O lie down in rest and sleep without fear!

Do you know the Night descending on your Mind,
Which cries in vain, Salvation!
Night’s serpent slithers into memory
And a thousand demons spit in your brain?
O keep away in sleepless consternation,
Because this is The Night that has no morning!

I AM ALONE AND LONELY.
By Dawn.

I am Alone and Lonely
My home is a house of many
Yet, I am alone, lonely, and broken

Eyes that can not see
Thoughts that have no home
Moving rapidly, yet remaining where I began
Alone, lonely, and breaking.

Breathing, not breathing
No feeling, reaching to touch without moving
Being touched and not wanting to feel.
Is it real, is it real.

SHADOWLAND.
By Jeffrey.

I am here
I think, I breathe, I feel … and then
Darkness
I am here
I play and sing and write and dance … and then
Darkness
I can hear them
I can feel them
Sometimes I can even smell them
But I can’t speak outside, only here
And the voices echo off the walls of my mind,
Separated by dividers,
Like little cubicles … and then
Darkness
I am.

CONFINED.
By DKZ

As we sit here within our chamber,
We perceive our life, its short remainder.
We shall cautiously go out into that stead,
Where hate and deceit all make their bed.

We’d much rather stay here and banish all thoughts
Of being on the outside like wool on the moths.
But then all the pleasures of life and of time
Cannot become a reality, not while we’re confined.

We must when we exit out into the stormy cold,
Keep ourselves bundled up, appearing to be bold.
We’ll gaze back behind us to see what is left,
Knowing in the future there may only be death.

A death not of body, of spirit or soul,
A death of the mind, so cruel and so cold.
Hopefully before we go, we’ll be able to empty our minds
Of all the battles and tapes that have us confined.

Criterion C of DID: “Inability to recall important personal
information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.”
Karl May at the start of his prison term
(14th June, 1865) was sent, as a former teacher, to perform clerical duties. He
was found by the superiors unable to do so, and had to be reassigned to simple
manual task.

In his biography[22]
May described the affair: “I was detailed into an office. … I failed as a
clerk to such an extent, that I was found useless. … This was striking. They
concluded that I must have been in a totally strange state of mind, as I had to
know how to write!”

The Albin Wadenbach incident – Recognition of Alter
Personalities. Nowadays in diagnosing the alter personalities the following
procedures are taken: (1) Polaroid or digital camera picture is taken when an
alter personality is out. (2) Tape recording of conversation between the
therapist and alter personality is made. (3) When the patient is able to do
his/her own writing, this proof may be convincing, since the therapist did
nothing to put those words on paper.

Often there is resistance in the patient against accepting the
diagnosis of D.I.D., since denial and repression are their
favourite defence mechanisms. But when the therapist has adequate proof of
amnesia spells in which alter-personalities make themselves known, this ought to
be presented to the patient.

Karl May was Albin Wadenbach in January 1870, when
apprehended by authorities. He wrote a letter "home" to the isle of
Martinique in West Indies, described his property in America and the education
he received there. Such a unique document – if preserved – would contribute much
to the May’s story. In the overall concept of things and other signs and
symptoms of D.I.D., this written record of May’s alter-personality would be
priceless.

"After serving his prison term, May also abandoned his criminal
career" claims the (1) article.[23]
Of course, because May was cured from his D.I.D. And it was not a "criminal
career", as May recognized himself, when he wrote: "What I did then … would
be in the present, more enlightened time heard not by a judge, but by a
physician."[24]

Most of the rest of May’s experience with the Court of Law
concerned defending his interest. May had to fight character assassination
attempts, stealing of his writings and denying payment due to him, as well as
unsubstantiated press attacks against him.

An example of this is Lebius’ publication of imaginary stories
about Karl May, based on lies by a Richard Krügel, gardening hand from
the place of May’s birth town.

Times have not changed since, as the case of the film actor
Clint Eastwood demonstrates.[25]

This is not the right place here to discuss the "Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" [DSM]. The next fifth edition
should appear around the year 2010. There is no doubt that under the pressure
of various activists certain conditions are being either added or removed from
classification of mental disturbances, as for example Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (added) or Homosexuality (removed).

The inappropriate term “Identity Disorder” has been
already removed from describing behaviour pattern during adolescence.
"Multiple Personality Disorder" is no longer used for certain conditions as
for example histrionic, attention seeking behaviour in adults. New
controversies are being debated – if pathological gambling is a disease,
why not compulsive shopping?

Regardless of how common or rare a condition is, people have it.
D.I.D. is a real complex condition and the clinical diagnosis is based on signs
and symptoms which the patients demonstrate world over again and again. However
the criteria are based largely on the presence or absence of certain behaviours,
assessment of which could be subjective. Associate symptoms and behaviour can
range in severity and occur in different combinations. Even if these days the
most widely used diagnostic reference is the DSM-IV, some professionals
also refer to the ICD-10, which provides a similar diagnostic perspective.
Problem with terminology used is not well defined and can mean different things
to different practitioners. There are different definitions given different
systems.

In a situation like this, an experienced therapist, dealing with
D.I.D. – and not a lawyer – should explain why the signs and symptoms as
described above, would not be applicable to the diagnosis of D.I.D. in Karl
May’s case during the period of 1862–1874?

Karl May did not have auditory hallucinations as he described in his
autobiography.

Karl May should be found guilty as charged during the years 1862–1870.

None of the three conclusions are acceptable in view of the
current medical thinking.

It is regrettable that Rubner’s diagnosis of Karl May’s state of
mind did not extend beyond the conversion neurosis.[27]
The old concept of neurosis in psychiatric classification has nowadays
been replaced by three new categories: (1) anxiety, (2) somatoform, and (3)
dissociative disorders. Formerly they have all been grouped together in the
diagnostic category of neurosis. Rubner does not seem to be aware of this.

The Rubner’s old-fashioned term conversion neurosis,
formerly called hysterical neurosis, conversion type, is today classified
as somatoform disorder. The serious physical ailments of conversion
disorder – blindness, deafness, mutism, seizures, tics, anaesthesias, motor
paralysis – suggest neurological diseases but have no demonstrable organic or
physiological base and are assumed to be an expression of psychological conflict
or need. The incidence of these disorders appears to be declining in our times.
Rubner missed this point that the past somatoform disorders have mostly
changed in clinical presentation today into dissociative disorders.

The dissociative disorders, which are becoming more
common,[28]
involve some temporary change in consciousness, such as loss of memory for the
past. In psychogenic amnesia there is the sudden inability to recall
significant personal information accompanied by severe memory failure. Such
memory loss is not caused by organic factors or simple forgetting. When the
reaction does occur, it is often an object of attention in the media because of
its intense, dramatic quality. The psychogenic fugue, the sudden travel
away from home with loss of memory of previous life, belongs into this category.

The criteria for dissociative identity disorder have been
described elsewhere and were included into the Diagnostic and Statistical manual[29]
in 1994. Rubner stated in his article that he never ever in forty years of
practice saw such a combination of symptoms.[30]
This may have been so because Rubner did not take in the modern trends in
psychiatry past the old concept of neurosis, and he never assessed the symptoms
of a patient with dissociative disorder beyond the old fashioned
conversion neurosis (hysterics).

Dissociative disorders occur cross-culture. In Germany a study
group has been founded in 1995, with Dr.Ursula Gast, M.D., Psychiatrist, as a
co-founder, at the Hannover University. There is a German w-page:
http://www.dissoc.de as well
as publications in medical journals.[31][32]

Symptoms of dissociation have been described already in 1956 in
a standard textbook of psychiatry in central Europe[33]
and Rubner could have come across similar in medical specialist’s publications:
"Disorders of attention and consciousness. …. From amongst full qualitative
disorders of consciousness, depersonalisation appears, which of course is
not a specific symptom of schizophrenia.
As a special form of the above sometimes a narrower
concept is being singled out, so called apersonalization, when the
patient lives convinced that inside him resides also one alien personality, who
is forcing him to actions, which contradict his own conviction."

Rubner does not seem to appreciate that Dissociative
disorders are a group, consisting of dissociative amnesia, dissociative
fugue, dissociative identity disorder (D.I.D.), depersonalisation disorder,
and dissociative disorders not otherwise specified. He calls the whole
group of Dissociative disorders "Multiple personalities"[34]and considers them to be "hysterical neurosis."[35]

Any attempt to explain dissociative disorders on the
basis of the old concept of conversion neurosis [hysterics] is doomed to
become a failure. Rubner identifies with the Huber’s textbook definition of
D.I.D.:[37]"Huber backdates the whole syndrome to the proximity of neurosis and
hysterics, conversion neurosis and conversion hysterics and with this into the
field of conversion neurotic disturbances."Contemporary psychiatry does
not consider the group of dissociative disorders to be the hysterics of
yesteryears.

From such a point of view of course the arguments Rubner is
using loose their impact. The Dissociative Identity Disorder affected Karl May
only during the years 1862–1874. Rubner thinks May suffered from hysterics his
whole life. Neurotic or hysteric people do not experience true hallucinations;
therefore Rubner assumed Karl May could not hallucinate either.[38]
In 1891 the Swiss psychiatrist Anton Delbrück described what he named
Pseudologia phantastica, a complex form of confabulation. This term has been
ever since unjustly applied to Karl May, who was a creative writer.

Popular fiction represented a highly cultural function
before 1950’s. Popular fiction served as an escapist means of entertainment for
the common people. However after the cultural equalizing post WW2, popular
fiction came to be appreciated and studied with as much importance as “high
culture” at an academic level. Recent post-modern cultural and literary analysis
has shown how popular fiction and popular culture actually tends to reflect the
psychological anxieties and pleasures of culture at large. Even if writers have
oddities and expressions of individuality, to classify them as mentally abnormal
is doing disservice to them.

ReferencesPlease click on the hyperlinked
reference numbers to return to your place in the text.

[9]
In Germany the ‘ICD-10-CM’ [International Classification of
Diseases, 10th Clinical Modification] is also in use. There the
former nomenclature Multiple Personalities is still noted, applying
however only to D.I.D. and not to the whole group of Dissociative
Disorders.

[10]
Reference to "feeling like one is in a dream" from DSM-IV [in (8)
p. 231], applies only to one of the Dissociative Disorders, to
Depersonalization Disorder, an example of which is described later in
(36).

[33]
Mysliveček, Z., Prof., MUDr.: “Speciální Psychiatrie.” Prague 1956,
pp. 158-159. The above quote is an English translation of the original
Czech text [Stress by author].

[34]
In Germany the ICD-10-CM [International Classification of Diseases, 10th
Clinical Modification] is also in use. There the former nomenclature
Multiple Personalities is still noted, applying however only to D.I.D.
and not to the whole group of Disssociative Disorders.

[36]
An example of Depersonalisation – one from the dissociative
disorders – which in Rubner’s concept would be diagnosed as hysterical
neurosis; from a narrative of WW2 concentration camp inmate: “Susanna
held fiercely to her loving memory of her brilliant father, Istvan, and
learnt to stand [at dawn roll-calls on frozen ground] removed from
her suffering as she willed herself to survive. “Sometimes, you feel that
maybe you were two people. One was the observer, and the other the victim.”
– The Age [newspaper], Melbourne, Australia, 11 February 1999, p.13.